Tuesday night, down to his final strike in the ninth inning after being fed a couple of 100 mph fastballs by a top closer,
Aaron Judge took the customary stance with his legs firmly apart and his bat cocked high near his right ear.
Anthony Volpe would later call Judge's game-tying home run, which he hit on a hanging splitter, "the least surprising thing I've ever seen."
The entire contest, Volpe said, "was just one of those once-in-a-lifetime things happening for the first time." "I desired the chance."
When the Yankees had runners at the corners in the bottom of the 10th, Volpe came through by sending Bryan Baker's fastball far enough to center field for Isiah Kiner-Falefa to come home with the winning run.
It was "his first big walk-off there in a big situation, a game that we were down," Judge remarked.